Abstract #2361

Brain iron load, as measured by Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping, promotes beta-Amyloid associated functional brain change in elderly subjects but not in Super-Agers

Jiri MG van Bergen¹, Xu Li², Frances-Catherine Quevenco¹, Sandra Leh¹, Anton F Gietl¹, Valerie Treyer^1,3, Rafeal Meyer¹, Alfred Buck³, Roger M Nitsch¹, Peter CM van Zijl², Christoph Hock¹, and Paul G Unschuld¹

¹Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ²F.M. Kirby center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, MD, United States, ³Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland

To investigate whether brain iron load has an impact on Aβ associated functional brain change, this study investigated a large sample of cognitively healthy adults including 44 Super-Agers (subjects over the age of 85 without cognitive impairments) using simultaneous assessment of Amyloid-PET for Aβ-plaque-density, QSM for estimation of iron load and resting-state-fMRI.

Our findings indicate that the combination of Aβ-plaque-density with other neurodegenerative change (iron), has an impact on brain functionality, reflected by significant changes of resting state functional connectivity. Additionally, Aβ-plaque-density had no significant effect on functional connectivity in Super-Agers.

This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.

Join Here